It was billed as Manchester's weekend of sporting history, and the two main events lived up to all expectations. One was a heavyweight contest of brutal and sustained savagery, laced with controversy and written off as a mis-match long before the loser had been battered into submission. The other was Mike Tyson versus Julius Francis.

Sadly Middlesbrough's manager, Bryan Robson, accepted defeat with neither grace nor dignity on the ground where he is still so revered. Instead he retreated with a few parting shots of his own after seeing Christian Ziege sent off just after the hour for his second foul on David Beckham.

His ire was unwarranted, but Robson was unrepentant, inexplicably claiming that Beckham could have stayed on his feet for the first challenge and described the second booking, when Beckham was taken out in full flight, as nothing more than an accidental collision.

If that left acrimony lingering in the air, it was nothing compared with the unedifying scenes 10 minutes later when Juninho's mazy run was halted by Jaap Stam and the referee Andy D'Urso awarded Middlesbrough an improbable chance from the penalty spot.

The spectacle of six or seven United players, frothing at the mouth and spitting their venom as they pursued the retreating official like a pack of wolves was deserving of contempt. Roy Keane, especially, displayed all the restraint of one of the Gallagher brothers.

Stam had taken the ball cleanly with a fine saving tackle, so justice was done when Juninho's spot-kick was beaten out by Mark Bosnich.

It was not until three minutes from time that the breakthrough came. Beckham's shot lacked any real conviction but Mark Schwarzer's butter-fingers did the rest.

Manchester Utd: Bosnich, G Neville (Scholes 69), Stam, Silvestre, Irwin (Solskjaer 80), Beckham, Keane, Butt, Giggs, Yorke, Sheringham (Cole 80). Subs not used: Van Der Gouw, P Neville. Booked: Keane. Goals: Beckham 87.

Middlesbrough: Schwarzer, Fleming, Festa, Pallister (Gavin 20), Cooper, Ziege, Juninho, Ince, Summerbell, Ricard (Ormerod 46), Campbell (Maddison 81). Subs not used: Beresford, Armstrong. Sent Off: Ziege (61). Booked: Ziege, Schwarzer.

Referee: A D'Urso (Billericay).